Germany Hits 10,000 MW Offshore Wind Milestone

The North Sea just wrote a new chapter in Europe's energy story, and it's powered entirely by wind.

Germany officially joined the 10,000 megawatt offshore wind club on February 26, 2026, when three new turbines came online in the He Dreiht and Borkum Riffgrund 3 wind farms. Only the United Kingdom has more offshore wind capacity, with 16,000 megawatts already spinning in ocean waters.

The milestone represents more than just numbers. In 1971, the North Sea became Europe's oil lifeline when the first wells started pumping. For decades, Brent crude prices set the benchmark for global energy markets.

Now, just 55 years later, those same waters are becoming the continent's answer to climate change. Germany's offshore turbines generated 26.1 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2025, enough to power millions of homes without burning a single ton of coal.

The transformation didn't happen by accident. North Sea countries including Germany, the UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, and Norway have been coordinating expansion plans since landmark meetings in Esbjerg in 2022 and Ostend in 2023. Together, they've installed more than 36,000 megawatts of offshore capacity, with 30,000 megawatts in the North Sea alone.

That's enough clean electricity to produce more than 110 billion kilowatt hours annually.

The Ripple Effect

The real story isn't just about one country hitting a milestone. The North Sea nations are building something far bigger: a shared energy system that could reshape how an entire continent powers itself.

By 2050, plans call for expanding offshore capacity to 300,000 megawatts. That would generate more than 1,100 billion kilowatt hours each year, enough to meet the annual electricity needs of several European countries combined.

Dr. Norbert Allnoch of the International Economic Forum for Renewable Energies captured the shift perfectly. "We are witnessing a turning point in Europe's energy history," he said. "The North Sea is becoming the centerpiece of a climate-friendly, secure, and future-oriented energy supply in Europe."

The expansion means European countries can reduce their dependence on imported fossil fuels while strengthening energy security. It turns a geographic feature that once made Europe reliant on oil into one that could make the continent a global leader in clean energy.

Wind farms now dot the same waters where oil rigs once dominated the horizon, proving that even the heart of Europe's fossil fuel industry can transform into something cleaner and more sustainable.